Golf Instruction Zone: 3 Types of Chipping Around the Green

Ted Frick and Stefany King of the Classic Swing Golf School at Legends Golf Resort in Myrtle Beach, S.C. demonstrate a more modern approach to chip shots, and how you can use three different clubs around the green to do so.

Ted Frick: All right, so today we’re going to give you a chipping tip. And we do this at our level two golf schools here at Classic Swing. This is going to be about club selection, it’s going to be about trajectory. It’s also going to have landing area involved.

And Stef, if you would, real quick. I just want to go over just the traditional setup versus what’s taking place in the more modern setup. So real fast, just setting up to this golf ball here. Traditional, a lot of leading edge dig. The ball is back in the stance, and a lot of hand on weight forward.

Now you’re seeing a lot of multiple-use wedges around the green. We’re going today with a pitching wedge, a gap wedge, and a sand wedge. All a chip shot. A chip shot is a lower flying shot that’s near the green. We got these different trajectories, but we’re not 20 yards away from the green right now. We’re inside of 10 yards.

So, the newer setup, real quick. The ball’s a little bit more forward, it’s forward of center. The weight’s a little bit more neutral, and the handle’s more neutral, and the face is open. By doing that in the setup, you’re using more of the bounce and the trailing edge, and it prevents digging around the green. But you got to hit it with your pivot.

All right, so let’s take a look here. We’re going to start out the ball close, we’re going to go through the lower one, and then to the tighter landing area. This is a pitching wedge.

And good rotation to the ball. Watch it roll out. Now we’re merely going to move back. We’re going to go into a gap wedge. So same motion, we’re changing the club selection, we’re a little further away. We’re going to move into a higher trajectory, move the landing area out further on the green. And then here comes the sand wedge, still a chip motion.

Once again, a very neutral setup with the ball more forward, the club face is open, and you’re going to watch how well she rotates to the ball. This one’s going through the higher hula hoop, and therefore it’s going to land closer to the green. All a chip motion.

Obviously around the greens you want to play to your strength. If some of you all get the ball on the ground early and get it rolling, it’s a lower maintenance shot. But what we’re trying to show you here is the variation using three golf clubs, therefore three different trajectories, and three different landing areas with the same setup and the same motion.